There is a lot of talk about how much protein one should have, and I have read a lot about it. They say all sorts of things. 1g per lb. 1g per kg. 1g per lean body lb. Myself, I try to shoot for around 100 or more grams a day. I'm not saying that I am successful at it, but I am losing weight. I'd like to get in more protein, but by watching my calories, sodium and cholesterol at the same time, it gets difficult.

I think that you are doing very well at 120g a day. That's just my opinion and some of what I have read around the internet. I started trying to lose weight when I topped out at around 250lbs. Today, I'm down to 187lbs and have dropped several pant sizes. You have to do what's right for you. Take all of the knowledge available and gear it towards what you need and are capable of. My diet plan is simple... Eat Less, Move More... It just has a fancier name. lol. Best of luck to you!!

I spoke to the weights trainer at my gym this morning and he said 30g is fine. I told him I have been having around 80-120g and he said all what will happen is the protein your body doesn't need will come out in your urine and it will smell like amonia

I spoke to the weights trainer at my gym this morning and he said 30g is fine. I told him I have been having around 80-120g and he said all what will happen is the protein your body doesn't need will come out in your urine and it will smell like amonia

No, 30g is decidedly not fine, unless you want to lose a lot of lean mass along with your body fat. Even the most conservative recommendations call for 0.8g of protein per kg, which in your case would be 180g per day.

Since protein needs increase while in a calorie deficit (because some of the protein will be oxidized for energy rather than tissue repair, maintenance, and growth), recommendations during a weight loss phase are even higher. And if you're performing regular exercise, and weight training in particular, the recommendations for achieving positive nitrogen balance range as high as 1.25g per pound of weight.

Tracer techniques have been recently employed and generally support the protein requirements obtained through nitrogen balance studies [13,24]. In fact Tarnopolsky et al. [13] found that protein synthesis increased from low (0.8 g/kg) to moderate (1.4 g/kg) intakes. While there was an 8.6% increase from moderate to high (2.4) protein intakes, these results did not reach significance. The authors suggested that this non significant trend appears to support the suggestion that the real protein requirements of athletes were closer to the 1.8 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight daily.

I don't say this lightly, but if this trainer told you that 30g of protein per day is sufficient, you should never seek dietary advice from him again.

30 grams a day is a number I have seen vegans use when they want to convince others that they need hardly any protein to thrive. There is no research supporting such a low number, even for sedentary adults for whom the lowest number I have seen is .4-.6 grams/pound/day. Other scales I've seen recommending much higher levels for people of all ages and all activity levels. And you can't tell whether you would fall at the top or bottom of the range, either.

I read of a study years back where they wanted to test to see if sedentary elderly people maybe needed less protein than the people on whom the tests were originally run. They found that in fact the numbers are the same no matter what age you are.

The Pie chart at the bottom of the screen is correct. The only thing about it is that it takes all carbohydrates into consideration (simple, complex, and fiber) as one number (total carbs) and doesn't ...